Despite the grim situation, there was something about him, a kind of wild untamed humor and bravado and dogged stubbornness that tugged at her. He expects nothing, she thought, because he’s never had anything. And nothing was expected of him. He was free in a way she never would be.

You’re a fool and a romantic, she thought. A worse fool than Missy. And you’ll likely end up ravished or dead at the hands of a street thug.

He looked her up and down speculatively, as if devising a plan of attack. “You’re not heavy,” he said. “But you are bloody awkward to carry.”

She extended her purse toward him. “Take my purse. But leave me here.”

“I don’t want your purse,” he said, scowling. The words hung between them.

Well, if he didn’t want her purse…Raisa swallowed hard. One thing she knew—there was more chance of escape if she were on her own two feet.

“I can walk,” she muttered, trying to recover some dignity.

“Right, but can you run?” he asked, grabbing her wrist and yanking her out the temple door. A moment later they were racing through the rain across South Bridge toward Ragmarket. Halfway across, he dropped the ring of keys into the river.

Once on the Ragmarket side, he led her off the Way, onto a side street. They turned again, into an alley, and he pulled a large handkerchief out of his pocket and tied it over her eyes.

“You always carry blindfolds, do you?” she said, trying to keep a quaver out of her voice. For once he didn’t reply, but took her hand and led her forward.

You’ll never get away with this, she thought of saying. But it seemed likely that he would, whatever “this” was.

C H A P T E R  T H I R T E E N

THE RAGGERS

Han couldn’t say what possessed him to take the girlie along. She was inconvenient and uncooperative. She only slowed him down, not to mention trying to stick him with her fancy knife. No doubt he’d have been across South Bridge and into the safety of Ragmarket sooner without her. With any luck, Jemson and the others wouldn’t be freed from the study until morning, so he didn’t really need a hostage. And now he had the problem of what to do with her.